Walk the Line

Get ready to strut your stuff. This month, shoe designer Brian Atwood brings his provocative sex appeal to Jones New York. Thanks to B, his new collection of hot-to-trot footwear, high heels (at low prices) have never looked so good.

Long before he was Hollywood's favorite shoe ­designer, the then-25-year-old Brian Atwood received his first indication that his fortune would be tied to footwear. "Somewhere I have a cassette tape of a psychic telling me that I was going to be ­famous for something to do with feet," he says, laughing. "I was still modeling at the time, so she said, `Maybe you're going to get the Nike campaign.' My reaction was, `Yeah, right, honey.'"

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Though he didn't know it then, Atwood's psychic friend was right on the money. Soon after he launched his eponymous collection in 2001, Debra Messing wore a pair of his saucy gladiator sandals to the Screen Actors Guild Awards—"I know she liked them because she bought them herself, at Neiman Marcus," Atwood says—and name-checked him on the red carpet. The next day, stylists started calling, all clamoring for Messing's shoe. Atwood soon found himself in the enviable position of being the footwear designer every actress turned to when she wanted to ratchet up the erotic appeal of anything from a sundress to a couture gown. If Manolo Blahnik is the grand statesman of the limousine heel and Christian Louboutin its Gallic provocateur, Atwood is its Tom Ford, a handsome, gay, dark-haired 6-footer who makes women go weak in the knees. It's a reaction that's due partly to his good looks but mostly to the way his shoes make their wearer feel: sexy and empowered. Since his initial success, Atwood has gone from hit to hit. (His longtime BFF, Rachel Zoe, whose clients include Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson, and Demi Moore, is just one significant supporter.) His latest is the deceptively simple Maniac, a platform pump inspired by the shoes Jennifer Beals wore in the poster for Flashdance, which is endowed with almost mythical leg-lengthening qualities. For the starlets who buy their Maniacs in every glossy candy color he makes, Atwood's designs represent the very pinnacle of the cobbler's art—his fans simply wouldn't walk the red carpet without him.

With the debut this fall of B Brian Atwood, a lower-priced companion line to his signature collection that he's currently launching with Jones New York, Atwood is about to expand his fan base beyond the elite $700-shoe club. Though not exactly in the Payless category—core prices for B will run from $200 to $400, spiking to $600 for boots—the new line will bring his signature sexy but refined aesthetic into the realm of possibility for the legions of women who've coveted his designs but have been unable to afford them (handbags and jewelry are also in the works, ladies). And the last time we checked, Payless didn't offer anything nearly as satisfying as Atwood's patchwork leopard-print ponyskin knee-high boots—"When all the colors come together, they actually become a neutral you can wear with anything," he promises—or silver Lurex pumps with an ankle-flattering, heart-shape vamp and a sweetly seductive disco vibe.

Atwood's attention to details, like the curve of a toe box and the shape of a last, remains as sharp as ever for B, but his references have shifted slightly to encompass a hipper, more downtown customer. "The Brian Atwood girl loves to be looked at," he says. "She's all about glamour. The B girl is cooler and edgier, a bit of a tomboy. She's more Sartorialist than the red carpet. She wears a high heel, but she likes a boot she can run around town in, too."

Atwood has had definite ideas about what women want from their footwear since he was growing up in Chicago with a single mother and a houseful of three sisters. "I've been sketching shoes since I was a kid—always high heels. And I loved to see my mother in high heels. What that says about me, I don't know!" he jokes.

But despite his early fascination with stilettos and the psychic's attempted intervention, Atwood didn't jump straight into shoe design. After studying fashion design at FIT and modeling for a few years, he applied for a job at Versace in 1996. He handwrote his résumé while he was in Milan on a modeling assignment and dropped it off at the label's Via Manzoni offices. "They called me back that day," he says. "It was meant to be."

Atwood's hiring was momentous for both parties—he was the first American to work at Versace, and though he worked as a women's wear designer at Versus, he was quickly singled out by Gianni Versace, who Italianized his name to "Brianino" and suggested he try his hand at footwear, eventually putting him in charge of the main collection's shoes and accessories. Atwood launched his eponymous line with Donatella Versace's approval, staying on at the fashion house for a few more years while he built up his name, before departing in 2005. He signed on as the creative director at Bally in 2007, revamping both ready-to-wear and accessories for the 160-year-old Swiss brand while continuing to design his eponymous collection. When Atwood left Bally last year, he knew he wanted to return his focus to footwear.

"I had this feeling of `This is it—it's time to really do what I love,' " he says. "I wanted to concentrate on shoes in a bigger way." His agent suggested he do a more mass brand and proposed teaming up with Jones, which over the past few years has glamorized its once staid reputation via partnerships with Jessica Simpson and Rachel Roy and by buying a stake in Stuart Weitzman. Within the course of just a few meetings, Atwood was drawing the shoes that would make up B's inaugural collection. "Good deals always come together fast," he says. "It was the perfect opportunity at the perfect time."